Kaitlyn Helene Ea is a badminton player who was awarded a Tier 3 Scholarship within the 2023 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program. She is the first badminton player to be selected for the program.
Kaitlyn was born in Melbourne in 2003 and grew up watching her parents play badminton. Her introduction to the sport came when she was at 9-years-old, and she immediately developed a passion for the sport before she joined Infinity Badminton.
Over the next ten years, she trained with former Olympian, Lenny Permana, to develop her strength and the technical side of her game, then in 2018, she set off to compete in her first international competition, World Junior Championships. which she competed in again the following year, in Russia.
She again competed at the Junior World Championships in 2019 which set her up for a big year. Soon after, she claimed the women’s doubles title at the Oceania Junior Championships, followed by the mixed doubles at the Australian Junior International Championships before she completed the year with two silver medals in the women’s singles and mixed doubles at the Australian National Championships.
After the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaitlyn re-focussed her training and claimed the women’s doubles title at the Australian National Championships, before she set off to compete in international events including the Uber Thomas Cup in Thailand and the Oceania Championships where she claimed silver in the women’s doubles. These results secured Kaitlyn a position in the Australian team headed for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games where she competed in the women’s singles and doubles, as well as the mixed doubles.
As of 2022, Kaitlyn is the #150 ranked senior international female and the #2 ranked senior female badminton player.
Away from the badminton court, Kaitlyn is studying a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne after graduating from Haileybury Girls’ College in 2022.
“It is an honour to be a SAHOF Scholarship holder alongside so many inspirational and successful athletes from all different sports. I can’t thank SAHOF enough for the opportunity and support that will inevitably play an important role in my future.” – Kaitlyn Ea on being selected as a 2023 Tier 3 Scholarship Holder.
Honours & Achievements
- 2018: World Junior Championships, Canada
- 2019: World Junior Championships, Russia
- 2019: Australian Junior International Championships – Mixed Doubles, 1st
- 2019: Australian National Championships – Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles, 2nd
- 2019: Oceania Junior Championships – Women’s Doubles, 1st
- 2022: Australian National Championships – Women’s Doubles, Champion
- 2022: Uber Thomas Cup, Thailand
- 2022: Oceania Championships – Women’s Doubles, 2nd
- 2022: Birmingham Commonwealth Games
- 2023: Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship Holder
